ntfswipe

NTFSWIPE(8) System Manager's Manual NTFSWIPE(8)

NAME

   ntfswipe - overwrite unused space on an NTFS volume

SYNOPSIS

   ntfswipe [options] device

DESCRIPTION

   ntfswipe clears all or part of unused space on an NTFS volume by overwriting with zeroes or random bytes.

OPTIONS

   Below  is a summary of all the options that ntfswipe accepts.  Nearly all options have two equivalent names.  The short name is preceded by - and the long name is preceded by --.  Any
   single letter options, that don't take an argument, can be combined into a single command, e.g.  -fv is equivalent to -f -v.  Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique  pre‐
   fix of their name.

   -a, --all
          Wipe all unused space. This may take significant time. If the option --unused-fast (or -U) is also present, the faster wiping method is used.

   -b, --bytes BYTE-LIST
          Define  the  allowed  replacement bytes which are drawn randomly to overwrite the unused space. BYTE-LIST is a comma-separated list of values in range 0-255 expressed in octal,
          decimal or hexadecimal base.

   -c, --count NUM
          Define the number of times the unused space is to be overwritten. If both options --bytes and --count are set, the space is repeatedly overwritten this number of times by  each
          of the values in the list.

   -d, --directory
          Wipe all the directory indexes, which may contain names of deleted files.

   -f, --force
          This will override some sensible defaults, such as not using a mounted volume.  Use this option with caution.

   -h, --help
          Show a list of options with a brief description of each one.

   -i, --info
          Display details about unused space, without wiping anything.

   -l, --logfile
          Overwrite the logfile (update journal).

   -m, --mft
          Overwrite the unused space in the MFT (main file table, which contains the file names, and the contents of short files).

   -n, --no-action
          Executes the wiping process without writing to device.

   -p, --pagefile
          Overwrite the Windows swap space.

   -q, --quiet
          Suppress some debug/warning/error messages.

   -s, --undel
          Overwrite  the space which had been allocated to a file which has been deleted recently and is still undeletable. This option is not compatible with --bytes and the replacement
          bytes are random ones or taken from a standard list.

   -t, --tails
          Overwrite the space at the end of files which is unused, but allocated because the allocations are always done by full clusters.

   -u, --unused
          Overwrite the space which is currently not allocated to any file (but may have been used in the past).

   -U, --unused-fast
          Overwrite the space which is currently not allocated to any file, trying not to overwrite the space not written to since the previous wiping.

   -v, --verbose
          Display more debug/warning/error messages. This option may be used twice to display even more messages.

   -V, --version
          Show the version number, copyright and license of ntfswipe.

EXAMPLES

   Wipe out all unused space in an NTFS volume.

          ntfswipe -a /dev/sda1

   Wipe out all deleted file names from an NTFS volume.

          ntfswipe -dms /dev/sda1

BUGS

   There are no known problems with ntfswipe.  If you find a bug please send an email describing the problem to the development team:
   ntfs-3g-devel@lists.sf.net

AUTHORS

   ntfswipe was written by Richard Russon, Anton Altaparmakov and Yura Pakhuchiy.  It was ported to ntfs-3g by Erik Larsson.

AVAILABILITY

   ntfswipe is part of the ntfs-3g package and is available from:
   https://github.com/tuxera/ntfs-3g/wiki/